Search

Huntingdon, PA Train Wreck, Mar 1888

On Sunday afternoon, the 5th of March, 1876, John Keister, engineer of the limited mail train, was killed on the road in a wreck near Warrior Ridge station, about three miles west of Huntingdon. The train ran into a rock that had fallen off the ridge; the locomotive was knocked off the track and cutting loose from the cars, turned twice in going down the embankment, carrying Keister with it. He crawled out from the debris, the blood issuing from his mouth and nostrils, and seating himself he was heard to pray, and in 15 minutes his spirit took its flight. James Drake, another engineer who was on the engine at the time, caught hold of the throttle and held on until the engine ceased rolling, and escaped serious injury, as also did the fireman, Adam Kaufman, who jumped before the engine went over. Mr. Keister was aged 35 years, resided in Harrisburg, and left a wife and two children.

Comments

Altoona, Pa., March 12.--Passenger train No. 9, on the Pennsylvania railroad collided with a heavy freight train near Huntington [sic] at three oâ€™clock this morning and both trains were wrecked. Robert Gardner, engineer, and Fireman Mowry, both of the passenger train, were instantly killed, and two others, a freight brakeman and three Pullman passengers, whose names could not be learned, were seriously hurt. The other passengers escaped with a severe shaking up. The freight train had jumped the track and before the flagman could get back to notify the passenger train, the collision occurred. A severe storm was raging in the mountains and the crew on the freight train was almost frozen. The wires are all down and particulars of the accident are meager. Trains were delayed several hours. The brakeman on the freight, Ernest V. Moyer, of Harrisburg, is the third death reported from the wreck. The injured will be brought to Altoona. The wreck is simply colossal. All trains east and west are now ten hours late and none can get through before evening. The wrecking crews from Mifflin, Huntington [sic], Tyrone and Altoona are at the scene of the disaster.